I am digressing, but there were definitley a lot of leftists applauding Khomeini ousting the Shah, due to the fact he had close ties with the USA. The very same people hadn't much to say about Khomeini and his gang exectuing and hunting down (secular) Iranian communists immediately after seizing power.

Can you provide some evidence to this assertion? IIRC the secular Western left were extremely hesitant to endorse the Iranian revolution due to Islamist elements, in fact the only prominent left thinker to uncritically support it was Foucault who was lambasted by the left as a result.

Can you provide some evidence to this assertion? IIRC the secular Western left were extremely hesitant to endorse the Iranian revolution due to Islamist elements, in fact the only prominent left thinker to uncritically support it was Foucault who was lambasted by the left as a result.

Only in german in my old "Der Spiegel" copies from 1979 - 81. "Der Spiegel" = a german "Time magazine" - most prominent one to endorse Khomeini was later German foreign minister Josef Fischer.

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long but good Andrew Sullivan piece in New York magazine. written for US readers, so includes lots you already know but draws interesting parallels between him and trump, and concludes with how pulling a "corbyn" might be the best/only way for democrats to win back the White House in 2020.

Still, Corbyn’s shocking viability reveals one thing: This moment rewards boldness and political risk. It requires a set of policies that address stagnant wages, economic inequality, and health-care insecurity; and a leader who is sincere, unpackaged, real. The last thing the party needs is calculation, let alone an emphasis on “electability.” These are radical times. The crisis in capitalism has opened up new avenues for politics that were once unthinkable, a fact that the American right has not hesitated to grasp. I can’t say I agree with the positions of Labour, especially in foreign policy, and I suspect its economic policy could be disastrous if combined with an ugly crash out of the EU. But it’s impossible not to see the logic and power behind Labour’s rediscovery of ambitious socialism in the wake of capitalist failure.

The line between radicalism and extremism is fine. Corbyn’s Labour has failed to rein in its bigots and haters and illiberal opportunists. But the success of his broader message has an obvious lesson for the Democrats: Forget the obsession with Trump. Do not make the next elections about him. Simply make the case for a radical break from the recent past, for a new and more ambitious equality. Dare to raise taxes on the wealthy and lower them on the middle class, dare to bring Wall Street to heel, guarantee universal access to health care, rally the next generation, and abandon pretensions to policing the world. And do this with passion and integrity. You may find new voters, young voters, angry voters, previously invisible voters, minority voters, turning up in numbers you never expected. As America’s liberal democracy teeters under a far-right cult, we’ll need every single one of them.